Could This Be The Year for Tottenham’s Harry Winks?

For the last season, Tottenham youth academy product Harry Winks has seemed balanced on on the tipping point between two possibilities: Next Big Thing or Next Tom Carroll.

Which isn’t to disparage the latter, of course. Carroll’s done whatever Tottenham’s asked of him since graduating out of the academy system in 2010. He’s been sent out on four different loan spells. He’s patiently waited on the bench. He’s played in a variety of midfield roles. And yet the 24 year old still hasn’t broken through.

Carroll’s inability to make that final leap nullifies a lot of the hype surrounding the player when it seemed he might eventually become a regular fixture in Tottenham first teams. Whether it was down to the player’s own limitations, the shifting priorities of the club itself when it comes to youth over the years or some combination of the two, it’s hardly controversial to say that Carroll’s initial promise seems to fade by the day.

Like Carroll, Winks earned a reputation as an omni-talented midfielder as he came up through Tottenham’s academy, and the club liked what they saw enough to offer him his first professional contract in 2014.

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Further deals would be signed in 2015 and the spring of this year, keeping Winks at the club until at least 2019. Such progress is an indication of how highly Pochettino and the rest of the coaching staff regard him, and suggests that a bigger first team role is imminent.

What seems set to distinguish Winks from Carroll is the timing of his ascent. Carroll came up in the waning years of the Harry Redknapp era, when the likes of Luka Modrić and Tom Huddlestone dominated the midfield and there was more emphasis on loaning players out than developing them in house. The successive reigns of André Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood didn’t do much to accelerate Carroll’s progress at the club.

Pochettino is rightfully regarded as something of a savior for Tottenham’s academy and its players. The club’s doubled down on their commitment to academy director John McDermott, and Pochettino has begun to — or seems about to — enthusiastically utilize players like Josh Onomah, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carroll and Winks on the first team.

In such an environment it seems much more likely that Winks gets a shot earlier than Carroll. Tottenham’s pre-season tour and the considerably weakened team Pochettino brought was written off by many as a half-hearted concession to the business end of the club, but in reality it was the perfect excuse for several younger or lesser-used players to audition for bigger roles in the coming season.

Among those players were both Carroll and Winks. Both players featured for most of the minutes Tottenham played against Juventus and Atlético Madrid, though it was probably Winks who impressed more

Sitting alongside Victor Wanyama, Winks was the clear outlet target for balls being played out of defense. Michel Vorm often passes directly to him, relying on the 20-year-old’s ability to pivot and direct the ball forward, often out wide to Kieran Trippier but also through the middle to the more creative attacking players ahead of him.

It was a workmanlike performance. Nothing flashy, but it didn’t have to be. He merely needed to be aware of Atlético’s attempts to counter through the middle, handle what came to him and get play going forward again. He did that better than you might expect for a player of his age and level of experience.

The truth of the matter, though, is that Winks will be competing with a fairly grounded field of players for even substitute minutes. Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama appear tp be the starters from the beginning of the season with Mousa Dembélé suspended for the first run of games, but below them will presumably sit Ryan Mason and Carroll assuming neither player isn’t sold or loaned out. 

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Performances like the ones in Australia will improve Winks case however. If either Mason or Carroll is dealt, there’s a real chance that Winks has made a good enough impression on Pochettino that he might begin to earn minutes in multiple competitions as the starting XI is rotated.